AUSTIN, Texas – Detectives from the Austin Police Department believe they have uncovered a cold case homicide from 2018 that may be linked to Raul Meza Jr., 63, police said in a new search warrant affidavit.
Police detectives filed a search warrant to gain access to Meza’s Google account, hoping to uncover more details in the murders Meza is already linked to, as well as any additional cold case homicides. The affidavit stated that an Austin Police Department detective “identified an APD Cold Case Homicide from 2018 that matches the Modus Operandi of Meza”.
Meza was arrested and charged in May after confessing to the murder of an 80-year-old man, Jesse Fraga. Meza also confessed to the murder of his former neighbor, Gloria Lofton, 65, in 2019. Additionally, police stated that Meza may be connected to as many as ten cold cases. During a May 2023 press conference, an official called Meza a “serial killer”.
In July, police conducted a search in Pflugerville following leads related to Meza. The search uncovered “several locations that displayed the properties of a possible burial site,” according to police documents. Search crews found clothes, rope, a tarp, and an area that had characteristics of a grave site.
Meza’s criminal history stretches back almost 50 years and includes convictions of aggravated robbery and murder. In 1975, as a 15-year-old, Meza was involved in a robbery where the manager was shot in the back. He was also accused of raping and murdering 8-year-old Kendra Page while on parole for the aggravated robbery. Her body was found in a southeast Austin elementary school dumpster on Jan. 3, 1982. Meza was convicted of her murder and served just over 11 years of a 30-year sentence.